5 Trans Masc Books You Need To Butch Up Your Bookshelf
From Butch Lesbianism to Trans Male Narratives.
It’s safe to say that butchness, masculinity, and hardness in people assigned female at birth is erased regularly from literature, art, film, and media. It seems to be hard for cis straight people in patriarchal societies to see their pieces-of-meat-wives-and-mothers-to-be expressing a roughness and masculinity that is so against their system. So they repress and hide it.
However, it is exceptionally important to represent it despite this system. Trans men, butch lesbians and people in between these lines that have been otherwise ignored, being some of the very people that aided in the first Stonewall riots and experienced irreversible trauma at the hands of police.
Well, you’re in the perfect place to find some beautiful reads of AFAB masculinity, butch lesbianism, and trans men.
Fiction
- Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
This wondrous novel is a piece of historical fiction, re-written for our times. Based on the history of London’s legendary pickpocket, thief, and prison break artist Jack Sheppard, who roamed the streets in the early 18th century with lover and prostitute, Bess Khan. Rosenberg rewrites this as a trans narrative, with Jack Sheppard being assigned female at birth, as well as making Bess a “lascar” from South East Asian descent.
This rewriting is truly spectacular. Historical fiction from this era fails to include many queer voices, especially trans narratives. As queer people are usually seen as outlaws and troublemakers, it’s beautiful to read this in a new light — a reclaiming of this position on the outskirts of society as a successful, trans and notorious thief, that protests police rule. It also includes so many other issues such as racism and classism in this period.
Confessions of the Fox is riveting, but also include footnotes of the narrator Professor R. Voth, also trans masc. A professor that is collating these lost documents in an ignorant university setting. It truly adds to the journey of transness and smooths the narrative.
This novel is definitely worth the read!
2. Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson
Written by the best-selling author of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson creates a lucid and strange tale in her most recent novel. Frankissstein is a modern retelling of the infamous Frankenstein by Mary Shelley but with various queer references and modern changes to the original tale. Trans masc doctor Ry Shelley meets Victor Stein, a professor of “accelerated evolution”, they embark on a relationship of philosophy, technology, and sexuality.
As we are now seeing the development of artificial intelligence in our society, Winterson explores the nature of potential transhumanism of AI, the “monster”, side by side with transgender narratives — what makes a gender, just as what makes a human?
Within the text and its characters there seems to be a debate about AI and gender, those that believe AI is a medium where gender should no longer matter, and then there are those that try to manipulate AI to be overly-gendered, creating feminine sex dolls that are perfect women.
This one is a philosophical read but one that is exciting and flows, as well as creates an interesting debate on human and gendered life.
3. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
Stone Butch Blues is a classic to have in any queer library. Leslie Feinberg is a pioneer of lesbian and trans masc history, making groundbreaking work with this piece, her first novel. The life story of butch lesbian Jess, which is semi-autobiographical of Leslie’s own life, amidst the gay bars, drag kings and queens, lesbian culture, police raids, and daily prejudice in New York during the time before the Stonewall riots.
A coming-of-age story of adversity at heart, the tale shows the brutality of life without rights, as well as shows the inner conflicts of sexuality and gender at the centre of butch lesbianism. Feinberg clarifies that he/him (and now they/them) lesbians have existed for time immemorial, and the lines between lesbian and trans man are thinner than the LGBTQIA community makes it out to be.
Primarily because butch women aren’t even considered as women in their society and throughout history. Acting as men or masculine removes them out of a hetero-patriarchal sphere of falling into women’s expectations, and thus, take masc identities and traits in order to survive the many brutalities.
This one is essential for your library and will give you heartbreak, shock, and queer love. Feinberg has taken Stone Butch Blues off the shelf and now seeks to educate the world by providing the manuscript for free on her website.
Non-Fiction
4. Female Masculinity by Jack Halberstam
Jack Halberstam produces one of the most innovative pieces of queer and trans theory in decades. Female Masculinity depicts what it truly means to be masculine without “men”, and the various displays of it, from “tomboys”, lesbianism, butchness, trans men and non-binary masculinity, as well as their depiction in arts, literature, and culture.
There are other things addressed within these masculinities like hidden lesbian and trans narratives throughout history, fashion, male impersonation, and Drag King culture. This text lays out the fundamentals of trans-masculinity and theorises the surrounding patriarchal culture that prevents it.
This read is definitely for those seeking the theory behind the identity that can be applied to countless other subjects including fiction, art, culture, fashion, history, and more.
5. Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg
Another beautiful text from Leslie Feinberg, this time a non-fiction piece about transgender history with a focus on butch and trans masc identities. Feinberg looks into history’s lost moments and people, from Joan of Arc to drag culture, Two-Spirit identities to English folklore.
As ever, Feinberg questions the very structure and depiction of gender itself in its narrow binary and pushes for the identities in-between the lines, blurring sexuality and gender.
This text is exactly what you need to fully learn the history of trans masculinity, sufferings and triumphs, the hidden stories, and Leslie’s own experience of transness.
Some final thoughts…
It’s true, the patriarchy still reigns and the people directly questioning this are people under trans masc identities. From lesbianism that appreciates women, to trans men that confront their gender expectations of birth.
These are the people at the front line of feminism and LGBTQIA rights, so now it’s time to adapt our libraries to include them.
